Generally, there are two methods of providing an RF shield for an RF generating component in an electronic device. First, An RF shield is directly soldered to a ground plane of a printed circuit (PC) board around the radio RF generating component. Second, RF shield clips are electrically coupled to the ground plane of the PC board and an RF shield is attached to the RF shield clips.
Directly soldering the RF shield to the ground plane causes several problems, namely: the RF shield needs to be either hand placed and reflow soldered, or hand soldered; and the RF shield becomes permanent, not allowing testing of the RF generating components or other components within the RF shield. These problems increase the cost of the product and decrease the quality and efficiency of manufacturing RF generating devices, such as radio communication devices.
Utilizing RF clips to hold the RF shields, solves some of the aforementioned problems, namely, the shield is typically removable to allow testing of the components within the RF shield. In the past however, the RF shield clips were either hand-placed or placed in a plastic fixture and then reflow soldered. These additional manufacturing steps increase the cost and complexity in the manufacturing process, and also, reduce the efficiency and quality of manufacturing RF generating components. Additionally, RF shield clips often require welding, independent of the soldering step, to provide stability for the RF shield clip.
It would be advantageous to provide a removeable RF shield utilizing autoplaceable, reflow solderable RF shield clips, increasing efficiency and reducing the cost and complexity of manufacturing RF generating components.